Thrills, Chills and Spills (musn't think about bills)

Feeling a potent combination of excitement, anticipation and a certain holy-hell-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into today.

Working on facial rig today, and while I've been scribbling a lot of notes down as I work, figured I'd take a few here since they'd be easier to find than in our apartment.

BROW RIGGING part 1

After revisiting work from earlier in the term, I couldn't remember all the intricacies of the facial rig I devised. So I went back through it and diagrammed it. WILL LINK HERE.

As for how the high level controls will function -- each eyebrow will be controlled by three sliders that can move in X and Y, a la Jason Osipa's Stop Staring. Unlike in his book though, I'm doing all the connections with nodes (well, that and there's no blend shapes here, just joints. And the control panel I've set up, that's new. Actually, I just took the slider idea, which is fantastic.)

Slider 1: Brow_Main (ranges from 0,-1 to 1,1)

Y direction raises and lowers the upper brow, multiplies with Slider 2. (equivalent muscle: frontalis)
X direction squeezes brows in (equivalent muscle: corrugator)

Slider 2: Brow_Exp (-1,-1 to 1,1)

Used in tandem with slider 1, it multiplies the up-down action of the brows while restricting it to specific locations along the browline.

Y raises and lowers individual parts of the upper brow.
X determines which part of brow is raised by Y, from inner (between eyes) to outer.

Slider 3: Brow_Lower (-1,0 to 1,1)

This one is fun, since it's a quasi-made-up muscle. Will be used to intensify facial expressions, sort of combining the functions of the cheeks and lower lids, even though they have these controls too. (approx equivalents: orbicularis oculi and zygomatic major) Control functions like slider 2, but on area below the eye.

Y raises and lowers individual parts of the "lower brow."
X determines which part of brow is raised by Y, from inner (between eyes) to outer.


BROW RIGGING Part 2

So in terms of how to mechanically hook up those high-level brow controls, they are going to drive 10 controllers on the face via driven keys (SDKs). Those in turn have low-level controls parented underneath, so I can easily tweak out any expression that I can't get with the sliders in animation.

1) Set driven keys on pure translate Y driven by Y channel of brow Main.


More to come